Artificial intelligence is changing a lot of industries, including online marketing. Companies are continuously using algorithms to tailor the online experience of customers to make more people buy more. The more you know about who your potential customers are and what makes them buy your product, the more you can adjust your advertising and online presence to make customers buy your products.
Google AdWords is an online bidding platform where you put up a bid for your ads to show up on the google search results pages when people are searching the search engine for specific queries. You can adjust your bid to make your ads show up for people of a specific age, from a specific city or you can make your ads appear higher up in the results, for example, in the morning or late at night. With artificial intelligence, the algorithm can adjust these bids for you. By testing different adjustments and analyzing which groups of people click on your ads, the algorithm learns who, where, and when your ads should pop up on the google search results to increase conversion.
These techniques are not just being done in Google’s search results. Websites are also continuously testing their pages to see which changes lead to a higher revenue. Artificial intelligence can be used to test which headlines or header images on the homepages should be shown to what target audience to get the best results (Schober, 2017) .
But what are the consequences of this for the consumer? We should be aware that our data is being captured continuously while you are shopping online and that companies are constantly adjusting their website or advertising to increase the chances of you buying their products. So next time you are online shipping, ask yourself if you really need that pair of shoes or is the algorithm forcing you to add them to your shopping cart?
Sources:
The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Online Marketing – AI marketing will open doors which seem closed today. Schober, M. (2017). Retrieved from: https://medium.com/@mariusschober/the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-on-online-marketing-8f2ba4fcf0bb
Adspert is an example of an online automated bidding tool: https://www.adspert.net/en/search/
Adobe Target is an example of a platform for personalized A/B testing: http://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/target/ab-testing.html
Well as a girl, I do a lot of online shopping. I must say that I don’t think I’m forced to buy anything. However, I do experience the consequences of artificial intelligence. Whenever, I’m looking for something, even just for simple information, Facebook will spam me with advertisement. it’s very annoying because it’s never something new, it is always the exact same thing/product I clicked on. Most of the time, If I did not buy it, there is a reason for it. So, it is not useful to keep spamming me with the same thing. Hopefully, they will gain more intelligence in the future!
Although I believe online advertising does often capture a consumer’s attention, I am skeptical to its success. As you mention in your blogpost, due to Artificial Intelligence, personalized advertisements can be created for consumers, which is believed to increase consumer purchasing. However, often times on Facebook or on Instagram, when I receive suggested advertisements regarding possible clothing or makeup products which I should purchase, I personally regard this as “spam”.
As it becomes increasingly obvious that advertisements are connected to previous purchases or previous websites which I have surfed, I begin to view the adds as an irritating marketing scheme. I often times find it distracting, and could compare it to promotion people who stop you on the street, distracting you from what you were actually doing.
Targeted advertising is often deemed as harmful, which has given rise to new product of Adblockers. In a research conducted by Kristen Purcell, Joanna Brenner and Lee Rainie (2012) it is found that roughly 68% of their tested audience were not okay with targeted advertising because they “do not like having their online behavior tracked and analyzed”. Furthermore, in a Bloomberg Businessweek article, the artificial intelligence created marketing is criticized. It is stated that programmatic advertising interferes with everything we try to do on the web. It has deteriorated advertising for what it was and has “spawned criminal empires” (Elgin et al. 2015). Aside from being viewed as an invasion of privacy, the entire original marketing platform is believed to have been cheapened. Such over personalized ads are often viewed as manners for companies to pick more money from the consumers’ pockets. I believe the question to be asked is how to find a happy medium between spam and advertisements?
Resources
Elgin, B., Riley, M., Kocieniewski, D. and Brustein, J. (2015). The Fake Traffic Schemes That Are Rotting the Internet. [online] Bloomberg Businessweek. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-click-fraud/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].
Purcell, K., Brenner, J. and Rainie, L. (2012). Search Engine Use 2012. [online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/03/09/main-findings-11/ [Accessed 18 Sep. 2017].
This is an interesting topic! To some extent, I would argue that we allow websites to do this. When entering a website, you’ll most likely get a pop-up that asks you to accept the “cookies”. When you click accept, you allow the website to follow you while you are on their site. To this extend, I would argue that we expose ourselves to websites knowing about our behaviour on the internet.
On the other hand, most people are misled by cookies. You would think that when you accept the cookies, only that particular website can follow your behaviour while surfing on that particular site. However, this is not the case. A website (A) can allow an advertisement company (third party) to place a cookie on their website. Because of this, the third party will know that you (the customer) visited that particular website. When another website (B) also allows the advertisement company to place a cookie on their website, the advertisement company can follow you online. Now, the third party has more information about the customer, and their online behaviour, than both of the websites.
Because of this, advertisement companies can target specific people according to their online behaviour. For example when looking for a new watch. You’ll Google “watch” and visit a few websites to see what they offer. After a search of 30 minutes, you stop and go to Facebook to check out some videos. Guess what advertisements you’ll see when going through Facebook!? Watch advertisements! I think this violates a person’s (online) privacy. Without you knowing, a single company can see every website you’ve visited.
To summarize: I don’t mind websites following my behaviour, because I’m on their “property” and allow them to follow me when on their website. I do mind companies following me all over the internet and mapping out my (previous) behaviour in order to shape my future behaviour.